


H2O Just Add Black Sails

by thegreatblondebalrogslayer



Category: Black Sails
Genre: Angst, Drama, F/M, Gen, M/M, They're not not mermaids
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-12 20:13:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29016399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegreatblondebalrogslayer/pseuds/thegreatblondebalrogslayer
Summary: Silver and Flint are standing at a literal and figurative precipice when a false step sends them both tumbling into an new unknown.It's a mermaid fic. They become mermaids and I'm not sorry.
Relationships: Captain Flint | James McGraw/John Silver, Captain Flint | James McGraw/Thomas Hamilton
Kudos: 16





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Um yeah so I watched black sails like 6 or 7 months ago and haven't stopped thinking about it since and recently started watching H2O and here we are.
> 
> Set in 4x9 at the end of the episode.

He's standing watching his ship  _ burn. _ His  _ ship _ . The only constant he's had in the past decade. His fucking ship. He takes a half step forward, not caring how steep the hill he's standing on is. He doesn't even notice the rock that betrays his footing until he starts to fall backwards.

An arm reaches out and grabs him, "Ja-Captain, watch out." It's Silver of course. 

"Don't fucking _ touch  _ me." James recoils and yanks his arm away from Silver. Immediately Silver's face flashes in pain, regret, sorrow. But it only lasts for a second, it might have lasted longer had James not yanked his arm quite so hard. 

He lost his balance and Silver's face morphed into shock. He grabbed at James again but instead of keeping him steady, he tumbled down the steep rocky hill behind James. Israel Hands stood at the top of the hill, in the brief glimpse James got of his face he looked utterly put upon and not at all amused.

Silver and he tumbled until the fell into a cave. He would have scoffed at the situation had his entire body not hurt so much. Silver lay still, the dramatic shit.

James attempted to move and get his bearings. He settled on sitting upright as he couldn't yet stand. There was a pool of water that looked to lead out of the cave but he couldn't be sure how long a swim it would be. They had fallen from above roughly 8 feet. There was no way he could climb out. They were lucky the drop hadn't killed them. Unless…

He turned to look at Silver. He was very still. Too still almost. James' breath caught and a swarm of emotions overtook him. Was he dead? Did he want him to be dead? 

He wasn't sure and that made him more afraid than anything had in a long while. 

Silver groaned and James felt a sting of relief which he promptly ignored. James scooted back until his back was against the cave wall. He pointedly ignored Silver.

Silver tried to sit up but he must have hit his head because he immediately laid back down and put a hand to his head. James wasn't in the least bit sorry for him, a sore head was the least of what he deserved, the shit.

"Ow." Silver groaned out. James could see the moment he realized where he was and who he was in because he shot up and looked around the cave, the pain in his head forgotten. "Flint! Are you alright?"

James scoffed and looked away. Perhaps ignoring Silver was the best thing he could do in this god awful situation. But Silver had never been one to be ignored and James hadn't been one to bother to try for months now. He closed his eyes and tried to block out the sounds of Silver with that of the small waves lapping at the edge of the cave's pool.

He lasted what might have been fifteen minutes while Silver spoke to him and the cave incessantly. 

Fifteen minutes then he couldn't take it anymore.

"Jesus, shut up! No, no one's coming to save us. If Madi's still on that ship she'll have saved herself by now and probably didn't need you to help her to begin with. Hands isn't stupid enough to go down that damn hill looking for you and will be waiting for you with the rest of the damned traitors. The only way out of that cave is that pool, and no I don't know how far of a swim it is so  _ please shut up. _ " James snapped. 

Silver was quiet for several minutes. "I won't apologize."

"I didn't ask you to." James said. 

"But you want me to." Silver said, as astute as ever. 

"If anyone is proof that we rarely get what we want in life…" James trailed off and gestured at himself. 

Silver looked… disturbed was possibly the closest word James could out to the expression. He bit his lip and James looked away. 

James stood up slowly, using the wall of the cave to help him stand. He stretched out his back and walked over to the edge of the pool. It looked to be about seven or eight feet deep. More than enough to dive.

"What are you doing?" Silver asked, almost amused. 

"Going to see how far it goes." James said, he wasn't even sure why he was answering him at this point. 

"And what if it just goes and doesn't end? If it's too far or there's a strong current? Or there's sharks? Or-" Silver tried to go on with his list of horrible things that could happen but Flint cut him off.

"Or we stay here and what? Starve to death? I'd rather take my chances out there." The unspoken _ away from you _ rang loudly through the cave. James wasn't even sure why he didn't just say it, with anyone else he would have.

But maybe it was because he didn't need too, Silver flinched all the same. He didn't even ask if James would come back for him, he just watched as Flint dove into the pool.

James was immediately met with three things the moment his body hit the water. The first was the chill of it, he hadn't noticed how hot he had been until that moment, it felt brilliant. The second was that there was hardly any current, neither one of them would have a difficult time swimming through these waters. The third and best thing was how  _ quiet  _ it was. There was no treacherous thief turned quartermaster turned would be king down here. He would have sighed in relief had he the spare air.

As it was he had plenty of air to make it to the outside of the cave. It was dark aside from the rising moon, nearly overhead. And the distant light of the Walrus, still burning. 

It was nearly gone now, his ship. He did cry now. He wasn't sure what stung his eyes more, the salt from his tears or from the sea. Maybe they were one in the same now. He stayed there, wading in the water for a minute watching the last of his Walrus burning in the moonlight. 

Did he just keep swimming until the oceaned swallowed him? Like Gates had predicted all those months ago? Did he try to go to shore and find the impossible friendly face? There wasn't one, he was sure of it. Back to Silver? Was  _ that  _ his only option? Then what. Revenge on Rogers until Silver fancied getting rid of him again?

But what else was there? 

He groaned and laid back in the water and stared back up at the moon. It must be nice being the moon, he thought, so far away and untouchable by the scourge that is men and their civilization. 

But he wasn't the moon. The moon didn't have to pick between whatever his options were. No, he didn't have any options. 

He rolled over and took a deep breath before he plunged back into the depths. Back to Silver.

  
  


________________________________

  
  


He emerged into the pool gasping for air. Silver startled at him, clearly not having expected him to come back. 

"It's not far, no more than ten meters. And there's hardly a current or any sea creatures to speak of. Save for the great white." James says before Silver can ask any annoying questions. Questions like 'Why did you come back for me'. Questions that he didn't yet know the answer to, or if he ever would.

"A great white!" Silver yelped and scooted further away from the water.

James grinned at him, it was not a nice smile. He would never admit that Miranda and a hand mirror had helped him perfect it on the long voyage from London. But it was effective. At least with people who's name wasn't Silver.

"You're joking." Silver's eyes narrowed. "That's not funny you know."

"Oh but it is. Come on we should go before your crew, whatever's left of it, decides that you're a lost cause." James says.

Silver pauses, looking a little shocked at James' statement. " _ My _ crew?" 

"After today they're certainly not mine, traitorous fucks." He said. They both ignored that those men would never leave Silver behind, even if it meant searching this island for him until the end of days. 

James put a hand out to Silver. Silver eyed it warily but edged over to the pull until he put his leg in the water. He sighed in relief. He reached out and grabbed James hand.

He didn't need it, both of them knew it. James didn't even know why he offered it but it felt like the thing to do. Silver slid into the pool and breathed in as the water slid over his chest. He didn't let go of James' hand, though it would have been easier for both of them if he had.

The dim light of the cave grew suddenly as the moon went over their heads. James looked up at it, basking in it's solitary beauty again. He was mesmerized for a moment until he looked away. 

Silver was staring at him in a way that made him uncomfortable for reasons he did not want to fathom. 

"We should go." James said if only to break Silver out of his uncomfortable revelry. 

Silver nodded and opened his mouth to reply but stopped, his face morphing into bemusement. "Captain?"

He said, though James was no longer a Captain. "What?" 

"I think there's something wrong with… gravity?" Silver's voice was more confused than he'd heard it be in a long while. 

"Don't be ridiculous, there's nothing wrong with…" James trailed off as he saw what Silver must be seeing. Several drops of water had begun to rise into the air the moment the moon reached its apex above their heads. "That's not-" James started to say.

"Possible." Silver finished for him. "What-"

"The fuck." James finished for him as hundreds more droplets began to rise up around them, bathed in the all of the sudden eerie light of the moon. 

James began to feel a tingle go all across his body. It started in his toes and moved it's way up. It wasn't unlike when a limb had fallen asleep, that first soft prickling feeling before it began to poke at your limb harder and harder until it finally stopped. 

But this didn't seem as if it would stop and the prickling wasn't painful, it was almost  _ pleasant.  _ Silver gripped his hand tight in his own and James knew without having to ask that he felt it too. It had worked its way up to his jaw at this point and he couldn't have asked even if he wanted to. 

It lasted for what felt like hours but he knew it couldn't have been more than a few minutes because it ended as the moon moved along in its journey across the night sky. Time had seemed to freeze and last an eternity all at once then rush back at them. 

James opened his mouth but couldn't find any words so he closed it again. 

"Let's get the hell out of here." Silver said and James just nodded. They took a deep breath and swam through the cave, hand in hand. 

  
  



	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flint gets an island and enters the avatar state. John and Madi don't talk about their feelings. John gets in a boat.
> 
> Everyone is dramatic.
> 
> Comments and kudos are great if you get a chance!

_ I will wait for you.  _ John is trying to tell him.  _ Please don’t make me kill you. _ He’s saying. Flint doesn’t hear him. Won’t.  _ Can’t. _ John stares at him, not blinking,  _ he can’t breathe _ he thinks. Maybe this, in the long long line of betrayals, is what finally breaks him.

But that was the point wasn’t it?  _ No  _ John hisses at himself,  _ the point was to save him _ . A cruel voice that by now he cannot pretend is anything but his own laughs at him. He blinks past his tears.  _ Tell him, tell him about Thomas. Then he’ll stop.  _ He tries but he can’t find the words. 

Flint is sitting on the rock now, his breaths short and quick though John knows he’s not getting any air. The air feels thick and heavy to John. He takes a step forward to Flint but he flinches hard away from John. He doesn’t move far, John still has his gun pointed to him, but it’s far enough that it  _ hurts. _

_ You have a gun pointed at him, of course he’s flinching from you. _ That nasty voice sneers at him. He doesn’t move any closer. 

“Captain  _ please, _ ” John starts to say but Flint’s breathing grows more erratic. The air seems to crackle with tension. He sees a flash of lightning through the trees. The thunder follows soon after. Then another and another. Storm clouds come, seemingly out of nowhere. Flint continues to panic, for that is what he’s doing. The storm grows more volatile. And closer. 

They need to  _ leave. _

He takes another step closer to Flint. A bolt of lighting strikes a tree closest to him. He jumps, his hair standing on edge. He moves again after a minute. A plant closer to the ground catches on fire. Flint can’t breathe and he needs to  _ help  _ him. They needed to get off this damned island that had apparently decided it wasn’t going to wait for them to kill each other and had decided to do the job itself.

He took another step and Flint looked up at him. He wasn’t sure if he had suddenly calmed or was beyond panic. His breath stilled. His eyes… John felt an urge to look away, he couldn’t bear that look but he couldn’t. Flint had always been captivating. He took another step forward “Captain, we need to leave.” He put his gun away. He didn’t know if he should, but they needed to  _ leave _ . The fire was starting to slowly spread. 

He took another step forward. Another lightning strike. Another step.

“Stop.” Flint’s voice said, ragged as though he’d been crying for hours. He might have been had he not been so furious with John. 

John moved to take another step but a wall of fire sprang up between them. He looked at Flint shocked.

Once, he had almost thought Flint some deity. A sea god almost. As time went on that thought lessened, the only domain Flint had control over was  _ John _ . 

The fire wall rose. One foot high. Three. Four. It stopped at six. They stared at each other.

“Leave.” Flint said. 

“No.” John whispered, firm in his conviction.

Flint held up a hand and the fire wall moved across the jungle floor, scorching anything in its path. It stopped six inches from John. He could feel the  _ heat  _ of it starting to burn his hair, his clothes. 

“Leave.” Flint said again, quiet now. Calm almost.

“I’m not leaving you.” John said desperately. 

Flint looked away from him and John inhaled harshly. “That’s your ship isn’t it?” John looked to where he was looking and found that it was the ship that  _ Madi  _ was on. It was moving away into the horizon but it was still in view.

A bolt of lightning struck the foremast. It caught on fire. John whipped around and swore at Flint. “She can still sail.” The fire went out suddenly. “For now.”

Tears threatened to fall from John’s eyes but that seemed to be his constant state of being these past months. He was no stranger to them, nor the sudden rage he now felt towards Flint. All thoughts of relieving him of his burden, of telling him the  _ truth  _ that he knew would release him fled from John’s mind.

How  _ dare  _ he. “ _ Madi _ is on that ship.” 

Flint looked at him, eyes dead and unyielding. The fire wall reflected in them and made him look like the devil the men had always thought he was. 

“Damn you.” John hissed out. He wanted to reach for his gun, but what could it do against the  _ wall of fucking fire _ that Flint had what? Summoned? Or the bolts of lightning? Like he was Zeus come again, with all the rage and fury of the ancient gods? But he knew the sea would soon be boiling with his rage as well, like he had thought it had so many months ago.

“Damn you James.” He said again and wiped a tear from his cheek and walked away.

James had won once again.

\-------------------------

He could still feel the heat of the fire on his face as he walked back to the ship. Hands appeared at his side. He didn’t say a word. Didn’t even look concerned. 

John sniffed and wiped his face again. He boarded the ship. “Weigh anchor, we’re leaving boys.” 

There was a distinct feel of unease on the ship, they had seen the bolt of lightning strike the other ship. And the sudden storm that was moving closer. And they saw no Flint.

“Where to captain?” Hands asked, sneering at him. 

“Nassau.” He said then stormed into his cabin. 

\----------

As they left the island a storm seemed to gather around the edges of it. It was as if the island was the eye of some horrible hurricane, unyielding and permanent in its rage at the rest of the world. 

He could hear the men whisper that it was Flint’s ghost causing the storm. That it was the manifestation of his rage at his betrayal. 

They weren’t entirely wrong. 

\------------

They made it back in what was no doubt record time, everyone was entirely eager to leave the now undoubtedly cursed island behind.

This included John, but he felt like he had left some crucial part of himself back on that island. He purposefully avoided investigating that feeling or its seemingly obvious answer. 

The men hastily made their way to shore to celebrate… 

What? Their victory? They hadn’t won, no one had. But the war was over and that  _ meant _ something. Those men were  _ alive _ . 

He tried to tell himself that  _ that  _ was why, that that was the reason he had done it all. But it was a lie. But to be good at lying to others, one had to be even better at lying to themselves. And he had always been an excellent liar.

\-----------

He doesn’t know how to face her so he doesn’t. He knows he should go to her but he can’t. So he stays in Nassau.

She knows by now. What he has done, but he can’t bear to face her.

Besides, he hadn’t even done it correctly, who knew what  _ he _ would do.

Who knew. 

It takes a week for her to come to him. 

She doesn’t speak. She just stares at him in Eleanor’s old room. He sits in her old chair. Max’s chair now. She’ll be furious with him too, though for the opposite reason Madi is. 

John stays silent. He’s always excelled at being petulant.

“I know you are no fool John Silver,” she says her voice low and angry “so I know that you know what you’ve done. And you know that it is unchangeable now. And I know that you know that I can barely stand to be in the same room as you so I know that you will tell me what you did to him. What happened on that island?” She asks, demands.

He stares at the glass of rum he’d poured for himself hours ago. He’d forgotten about it. “I didn’t kill him if that’s what you’re asking.” They both knew it was. 

“Then where  _ is  _ he.” 

He picked up the glass and inspected it closely, as if it held all the secrets in the world. Maybe it did. He took a sip. “We’ve had reports of a storm surrounding the island, surely you saw it from the ship as you left?”

She nodded, clearly unsure what that had to do with anything. “A bolt of lightning struck our ship.” 

Rage filled him again. How  _ dare  _ he. Another sip. It was almost empty. “Then you’ll no doubt be surprised that said storm is still there.” 

Her face moved in confusion, “That is strange, but some storms last longer than others. And I do not see what that has to do with Captain Flint.” 

He stared at her. “The men think it’s him, his ghost. His rage at us for leaving him behind. That’s why no one has even tried to go back to look for the gold. They’re more terrified of him than ever.”

“They think that Flint caused the storm?” Her voice is incredulous. He looks down at the now empty glass in his hand. She pauses, smart as ever “And you? Is that what  _ you  _ think?”

He sighs and reaches for the bottle of rum but he’d had more than he realized. He reached for it too quickly and spilled more than a little bit on himself and the table. He looked down at the table and the papers on it “Max won’t be pleased.”

Madi sighed and moved over to help him clean it up. He licked at the liquid on his hand as he tried to dry himself off. 

Then… 

“What the  _ FUCK _ ?” He said as a strange sensation starting moving up from his toes and quickly into the base of his back. 

Madi turned to look at him from where she’d been trying to find a cloth to dry the table. Her mouth dropped open in sync with his. 

“You…” she started.

“I have a  _ tail _ !” He shrieked. 

She looked around to the door as if his panic would summon a passerby. “Hush! Unless you’d like all of Nassau to know!”

“Madi,” he hissed “I don’t think you understand. I. Have. A. Tail.”

She looked at him, obviously unsure of what to say or do.

For he did, in fact, have a tail. It was a yellow-orange color and reached out well past where his leg would have ended and stuck out from under the table. What the  _ fuck _ .

A giggle. Madi covered her mouth, surprised at herself. He looked at her in disbelief. 

“I have a  _ tail _ and you’re  _ laughing? _ ” He screeched, for that was really the only word for the sound that escaped his mouth. 

She burst out laughing in honest this time, “I’m sorry it’s just, John Silver you are a merman!”

He looked at her, utterly betrayed. Then he looked down at himself. She was  _ right _ . 

She raised a hand to her chin, obviously in thought. “Let’s see, the change occurred when you spilled the rum. Maybe…” She looked at his  _ tail _ then at the cloth in her hands. “Maybe if we…” She moved over to him and wiped off his arm where the rum had spilled on to him.

The tingling sensation moved throughout his body again but this time he looked down at found himself without a tail. He sighed heavily and leaned back in his chair. 

Madi moved away from him, and that stung like nothing else. 

He picked up a quill that had escaped the flooding and twirled it in his fingers. He thought back to the island and that strange pool that he and Flint had found themselves in. Could it have changed him?  _ Them _ ? No. But then what  _ else  _ could it have been? Because he was almost certain that whatever had happened to him had happened to Flint as well. 

Or what happened to Flint to make him able to conjure a never ending storm around the island and whatever had given John a  _ tail  _ had at the very least happened at the same time. He wondered if Flint had a tail too. He must have found out by now if he had, right? 

But the island itself seemed to have been the eye of the storm, mostly sheltered from the effects of it. So maybe he wouldn’t have discovered the tail. But the storm itself… 

John wondered. He held up the quill and tried to imagine it bursting into flames. 

Nothing. 

He looked out the window and imagined a mighty storm, the rain pounding and scarring the sand. 

Nothing. 

He sighed and looked at the rum again. He knew he shouldn’t but damn did another glass sound good right about now. 

On any other day he would have passed off the slight tremor he thought he saw in it off. But it was no normal day. He focussed on the rum, on his desire for it. The bottle twitched. 

He jolted upright in his chair. 

“What is it?” Madi asked. 

He pointed silently at the jug of rum and focused on it. It twitched again.  _ Come  _ he thought at it. The jug flew at him and he dove to the side. It shattered on the wall behind him.

He and Madi stared at each other in shock. “I think the men might have been right about that storm after all.” He says and she nods faintly at him.

\------------

Another week passes. 

He avoids any liquid when possible. He doesn’t change again by some miracle.

Madi only speaks to him regarding news of the island and it’s miraculous storm. In private she asks about his  _ other  _ problem. He shrugs it off, he’s trying to forget about it as best he can.

He just  _ can’t  _ deal with it right now. Or ever.

He knows that before she would have pressed him on it but now? Now she can barely stand to be in the same room with him. 

Her rage at him and her need to rescue Flint keep her from being able to look at him most days, much less speak to him.

He doesn’t tell her that it had been Flint to strike at her ship. He doesn’t think it would matter to her. She might have guessed as much already. It didn’t matter, she was determined.

He also doesn’t point out to her that if Flint is the one causing the storm, as they know it is, that he  _ clearly  _ doesn’t want help. Or much less to be  _ saved _ .

Besides, no one that had ever stepped foot on Nassau and was still alive had any chance of getting through to him now. 

He pointedly ignores that there is someone who  _ isn’t  _ in Nassau that could do it. 

He’s still so angry and… And well, he’s ashamed. He knows that if he had just brought  _ him _ here to begin with much of his current issues would be nonexistent. 

But then, who knew what other problems he would have instead? The war no doubt would have continued to rage on. 

But it didn’t matter now, it was too late for such thoughts. 

And besides, he didn’t think he could bare to stand before that man now. He would likely burst into flames under his judgment. He would probably deserve it.

He sighed. 

He walked through the streets of Nassau. He heard the whispers. They hadn’t stopped since they got back, and had grown. He’d sent ships as close to Skeleton Island as they or he dared. The storm still raged, it hadn’t seemed to grow any larger but it’s ferocity was maintained. 

The whispers began to grow more urgent. 

What if the storm grew?

What if it grew tired of the abandoned island and decided to target those responsible for it’s forming?

What if it drew the attention of eyes that no one wanted to have looking their way? They had all sacrificed so much to rejoin civilization, what if civilization turned its eye to them and saw the storm in all its unnaturalness?

What if. 

What if.

John didn’t know what was happening but he knew that the more people whispered about it, the louder those whispers would grow until they were shouts. Flint’s storm had manifested itself in Nassau already, whether it was actually there or not.

They needed to end it but he didn’t know how.

But the story couldn’t spread any further. 

\------------

It had been three weeks since they returned from Skeleton Island. 

He hadn’t even stepped foot on the beach. He bathed as infrequently as he could spare, but it was Nassau and that was expected. The tail came each time, he tried to ignore it. 

He also tried to ignore Madi’s pointed stares. He knew she thought he ought to be testing it and his… powers, but he avoided it all. 

Someone came to fetch him from where he’d been sulking in Max’s tavern. A ship had just arrived, Rackham they were certain.

_ Fuck. _

He followed the men and women to the beach. They waited until a launch landed with Rackham, Bonny, and Max. 

Jack hopped out and pulled the boat up further onto shore. He helped Max out first then Anne. They all turned to look at John. 

He gulped and walked away toward the tavern. He didn’t look back to see if they followed him. He saw Madi further up the beach and nodded to her. She fell into step beside him.

“I will protect your secret.” She said as if it had ever been in question. He knew she was furious with him, would probably always be, but he had never even thought that she would betray him like that.

_ You mean like you did her _ the nasty voice in his head spat at him. He flinched at it and kept walking. They reached the tavern and he walked past the bar and straight to Max’s office. He leaned against the wall. 

Madi is behind him. Then Hands enters the room, determined in his self declared role to protect John as ever. He doesn’t know if he should be grateful or hate him for it. He decides on ambivalent. For now.

The trio trickle in. Max first, taking in everything. Then Jack, analyzing the room and its shifted dynamics also but more focused on his wounded shadow. Bonny stares at them all, clearly uncomfortable in her new role, whatever that was.

Max sat in her chair and gestured for them to sit as well. They all did save John.

The three sets of eyes bore into him, asking the question that none dared voice.  _ Did you do it? Did you kill Flint? _ Max and Jack’s eyes darted around the room, clearly waiting for an enraged Flint to burst in and… what? Shoot them? Yell at them? Be disappointed? 

John knew which he feared the most, but he didn’t think it was what they feared.

“Well?” Max asked hesitantly. 

Madi snorted drawing Max and Jacks’ eyes to her. Bonny’s eyes never left Silver. 

“He couldn’t do it.” Her rough voice said. There’s nothing of the snide anger he’s heard in it in the few times he’s heard her speak. He’s not sure what he hears in it. 

But he is sure in what he sees on Max and Jack’s faces. Anger. Fear. Worry. 

“Please tell me Flint isn’t here waiting to kill us!” Jack says, his voice rising to a near shout. 

Max stares at him, trying to read his face. He isn’t sure what she sees.

Hands snorts this time. “Flint’s a little busy I’d bet.”

John glares at him now but it’s too late.

“Busy?” Max asks quickly before John can intervene. “Busy how?”

Hands pulls out a dagger and examines it, clearly done talking.

Max and Jack turn back to John. Bonny’s eyes had never left him. She unnerved him more than anyone else he’d ever met, save Flint. 

“He’s still on Skeleton Island, he won’t bother us I don’t think.” John says casually. Nothing about the situation is casual. Still he tries to save face, though he knows it will be in vain. 

“What?” Max hisses out.

“There’s a…” John isn’t even sure how to explain it. “There’s a storm surrounding the island.”

“And?” Jack asks. 

“You saw it beginning to form when you left.” John says to him, waiting for the pieces to click together.

“Huh.” Bonny says.

“But that was…” Max starts.

“Three weeks ago!” Jack finishes. “That’s not even remotely possible.”

John shrugs “It obviously is and Flint is trapped in it. Most of the island think it’s his ghost causing it. A manifestation of his rage at us for betraying him.”

“They think that Flint is somehow causing a never ending storm around that damn island?” Jack asks incredulously.

Madi and John look to each other and an unspoken agreement passes between the two of them, they will not expose Flint. He knows Madi does it out of loyalty for the man, out of friendship. He tells himself for days that it is to protect himself, nothing more. But he knows it’s more than that. 

“Insane though it is, yes. We can’t reach him because he’s in the center of it.” He says, hoping they’ll let it drop but he sees the look in Max’s eyes and he knows that she will not let this go. 

“As long as he is out  _ there _ he presents a danger to us  _ here _ .” She says angrily, as if he caused the storm. “You will fix this John Silver, I don’t care if you have to swim there yourself.”

Jack nods at her statement, her demand. Bonny just stares at him. He shrinks away at her glance. 

John looks at everyone in the room. Madi is looking at him unimpressed.  _ You got yourself into this mess, now you have to get yourself out of it and I will not help you,  _ she was telling him. He knew she was right. He just didn’t know  _ how _ . 

“He won’t listen to me.” John says desperately, wishing he could just disappear from the room. From the stares.

“Then I suggest you find someone he will listen to.” Jack said, resting his hand on the back of Max’s chair.

“Or,” Max started angrily, “find a way to fix this that does not require him listening to you.”

John glared at them and stormed out of the room. Hands and Madi followed him. 

“Where are you going?” Madi asked him as he walked angrily to the beach.

He needed a boat. 

“Savannah.” John spat out. 

“What’s in Savannah?” Madi asked, exasperated.

“Not what, who.” John says as he spots an empty boat moored to one of the docks. He climbs into it and looks up at his two companions. “Flint can be someone else's problem, I just need to find that someone else.”

They looked at each other bewildered, Madi and Hands. It probably would have been comical had he not been so irritated. 

“You don’t have any food, or water.” Madi points out, though he can tell she knows it's hopeless.

“Somehow I don’t think that will be much of an issue for me.” He says as he yanks up the sail and begins to drift away. 

“Savannah’s that way” Hands points to the right and John adjusts the sails but says nothing.

He sees Max hurrying to the beach, she must have followed them. “Where are you going?” She cries out. 

He doesn’t answer her. 

He’s out of sight of Nassau when a particularly choppy wave hits the boat and splashes him with water. 

He looks down at his now drenched body.

“Fuck.” 

It was going to be a long journey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a little hard to tell how long it would take for them to sail places but google says about a hundred miles a day. Boston is about 1400 miles from Nassau. Savannah is about 500. I'm doing my best ok.
> 
> Also, I'm assuming that Madi went with Jack to the Maroon's island for the treaty then Jack went back to Boston to get Anne and Max. John would have been on a different ship with Flint and the men to take him to Savannah. It's a little unclear but that's what we're rolling with.
> 
> If anyone wants to cry about black sails with me, I'm thegreatblondebalrogslayer on tumblr.


End file.
